A Boynton man is charged with stealing Biogenesis documents from a car at a Boca tanning salon

Boca Raton police arrested a tanning salon employee this week and charged him with stealing the documents that set off the biggest performance-enhancing drug scandal in baseball history, adding another only-in-South-Florida twist to the seedy saga that led to the suspensions of more than a dozen players and threatens to ruin the career of New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez.

Rodriguez is facing a 211-game suspension in part because of information Major League Baseball gleaned from the stolen documents, which the league confirmed to the Sun Sentinel on Thursday it purchased last spring for $150,000.

Though Wednesday's arrest of Reginald St. Fleur, 20, of Boynton Beach, seems unlikely to have any direct impact on the suspensions the league levied against 13 players, it becomes another curious chapter in the story of the documents that Major League Baseball sought out, paid cash for, and then used to exact justice against players who allegedly used banned substances.

A Major League Baseball official reiterated to the Sun Sentinel on Thursday that the league didn't know the documents were stolen when it bought them. Baseball spokesman Pat Courtney said baseball officials did not purchase them from St. Fleur and had no dealings with him.

Major League Baseball has publicly acknowledged obtaining the documents from another South Florida man, Gary Jones.

Miami attorney Alan Soven, who is representing St. Fleur, said he believes his client is innocent, describing him as a "good kid" and saying that the crime doesn't add up.

"I would be very surprised if this kid is involved," he said of St. Fleur. "You don't commit a burglary in broad daylight in the parking lot right where you work. … It's just common sense."

The documents — hand-written records of athletes' alleged drug regimens from a now-defunct Miami anti-aging clinic called Biogenesis — first garnered attention when a disgruntled Biogenesis employee leaked them to the Miami New Times, a weekly newspaper thatpublished a story in January.

The report sparked Major League Baseball's crackdown and ignited a frenzy that allegedly grew to involve private investigators, bags of cash, burglarized cars and various South Florida characters seeking to profit from the documents, according to police and court records.

Boca Raton police have charged St. Fleur with armed burglary in connection with a March 24 break-in at Boca Tanning Club. Police saidblood belonging to St. Fleur was found on a door handle directly under a smashed window of a rental car belonging to Porter Fischer, the Biogenesis employee who has acknowledged leaking the documents. He alleged that the Biogenesis documents had been among the items taken from his vehicle while he was inside the business with Jones — who told police he did not steal them.

Soven, who said he was hired by the tanning salon to represent St. Fleur, said he's suspicious of Fischer because of the way he got the documents in the first place.

"I don't believe a word he says," Soven said of Fischer.

Fischer told police he has known St. Fleur for several years and said they spoke occasionally. On Monday, though, St. Fleur told Boca police he didn't know Fischer.

Fischer told police he had decided to leak the Biogenesis records because the clinic owner, Anthony Bosch, owed him $4,000 and refused to pay. Bosch began cooperating with Major League Baseball in June and helped corroborate information in the records, according to sources.

Rodriguez has denied allegations of drug use, appealed his suspension from baseball and filed a lawsuit against Major League Baseball in federal court alleging inappropriate tactics by baseball's investigators.

After the story about the athletes' alleged ties to the clinic ran, Fischer told the police, Major League Baseball contacted him numerous times, offering him $125,000 and a job for the records – which he declined. He claimed the organization even hired a private investigation company to follow him.

"Fischer was convinced he was being bugged, tapped and followed by investigators looking to get the Biogenesis files," according to the report.

Boca police stopped their probe of the car burglary in May, pending the result of DNA testing or new information, according to records.

Boca police spokeswoman Sandra Boonenberg said authorities re-opened the case when they learned the missing documents had surfaced. Boonenberg said the department had no interest in the baseball matters.

"All the rest of the Major League Baseball stuff isn't our concern," she said. "An auto burglary was our concern."

A source close to the investigation told the Sun Sentinel Rodriguez's legal team is watching the Boca case closely, hoping evidence will show Major League Baseball knowingly purchased stolen documents.

St. Fleur, who has previous arrests for burglary and theft, remained in Palm Beach County Jail Thursday in lieu of $30,000 bond.